Australians downloaded approximately one exabyte (one million terabytes) of data via broadband in the three months leading to June, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
996,225 terabytes were downloaded in the three months ended June this year, an increase of 16 per cent from the data downloaded during the three months ended 31 December 2013.
“Our total download volume for the three months was 996,160 terabytes via broadband, and 38,734 terabytes via mobile handset,” said Lesley Martin from the ABS.
“Exactly five years ago, for the three months ended June 2009, we were just about to hit 100,000 terabytes of downloads, so today’s result makes a tenfold increase in just five years.”
The 38,734 terabytes downloaded via mobile represents a 40 per cent rise from the 27,627 terabytes downloaded via mobile in the three months ended 31 December 2013.
The findings pointed to the prevalence of mobile use, with mobile wireless accounting for half of all connections.
“The increase reflects the dominance of broadband, Australia’s continuing appetite for the internet and particularly the swing towards higher download speeds,” said Ms Martin.
